Welcome to Gaia! ::

Variscite smirked when she heard the voice, but when she turned to face her fellow lieutenant... well, he didn't appear to be that anymore. She didn't have a scouter to sense his power level or anything, but he seemed stronger.

"You look awfully pretty," said Variscite. "I'm guessing that sword isn't just for show. You have my congratulations, Captain." She nodded to him before looking back down at the mangled body.

"She wasn't that bad, Sally Wright," she said with a shrug. "She just did something irritating. Bad timing, really."

She flitted the issue away with her hand like it was an annoying bug. "She knew who I was, so I just took care of it. It's nothing now." She leaned over the edge a little more and smirked. "More like a pile of broken bones than anything."

Variscite stood back up straight and looked over at her Obsidian with a sneer. "I may have claws, Captain, but I'm no gopher. Besides, the Hillworth woods are a little conspicuous now, don't you think? So many bodies there littered by you and your compatriots... why not leave them for all to see, like artwork in a museum? I much prefer this kind of decor to the Museum of Modern Art, after all."

"They get spritzed with water," said Variscite, flatly. "Where's your water bottle, Captain?" She looked at him out of the corner of her eye, her blue eyes fixed on his pacing form. He looked stiff, angry, more like the agitated cat in his analogy. Her smile started to dissipate as his steps grew more erratic, and it was completely gone when he had asked her that question.

"My, my, what a question," she mused. She stroked her chin with one of her fingertips, not enough to bleed but enough to sting a bit. A month ago she would've answered that the Negaverse was everything. It was her reason for going out at night, her reason for making sure that her cars were freshly shined, her reason for existence. The illusion of a beautiful queen asleep in a crystal coffin was too much for the lustful woman to resist, but she had given too little and it was too late when it came to that.

"Give me a moment to think of a good answer," Variscite absent-mindedly pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's not so simple as it used to be, after all."

She either didn't notice him pulling off his gauntlets, or didn't care. It was most likely the latter. It was nothing that could affect her, of course. In her own mind, she was ineffable.

As Variscite went falling back, all she could remember was his face. Those livid, glowing eyes. That smile spread so wide that she could see his red gums like licorice frames around his teeth. She sprawled onto her back, her entire skull shaking inside her skin from his attack. She was lucky that her tongue wasn't clipped, but her cheeks weren't so fortunate. Leaden blood flowed into her mouth like a tap, and when she opened her mouth to gasp it flowed down her cheeks and matted her hair.

Though she didn't do it to follow Obsidian's orders, Variscite sat up. There were blurred stars in her vision, and she could barely focus on that pacing madman. She almost fell backwards again, but managed to struggle up-- her calves burning from his foot's impact.

"We have our Queen, Obsidian!" she hissed, blood seeping in-between her teeth. "What use is scavenging for filth and Star Seeds now?! The kingdom is almost rebuilt, and where does that leave us mere servants?! I am not ready to lick the boots of a married woman!"

So, it was out. In the arrogant days of her humanity, Variscite had seen all this as an act of nobility. She would serve a legendary queen in a crystal coffin and be rewarded with power, adoration, or some equally valuable thing when it was all done. Sadly, these delusions were far from correct. This power didn't stop Variscite from being defeated, rubbed in the dirt, and scavenging victims in alleyways like a filthy alley-cat. It was too, too far from her stained-glass delusions.

She didn't realize it, but she was really quite lucky that it was Obsidian who heard her complaints. She might see it someday, long after her wounds healed. If she had whined to Charonite, she would be dead. If she had cried to another lieutenant, they might not have stopped her. No, Captain Obsidian's discipline is exactly what she needed to re-work her prideful mind.

If Variscite could've spoken at that point, she would've made it even worse for herself. Perhaps it was good that Obsidian was throttling her throat. She had been thrashing, yes, claws in all directions. However, when he said those last words, she tried to attack. Her fingertips tried to bury themselves in Obsidian wherever they could. Tears of frustration and pain were streaking down her face, brought on by not being able to breathe. Humiliation, too, but a lot of it had to do with the powerful weight on her ribs and the fingers in her throat.

Her tongue started to jut out of her mouth from the weight on her chest, much like Giles Corey's had before he choked out, "More weight."

She couldn't even say anything, though, just thrashed and struggled and tried to cut him. She had to cut him, she had to! How dare he insult her like that, how dare he insult her by telling her the truth.

Variscite rolled. She rolled, and she rolled. She was barely the equivalent of a football to Obsidian, and a lousy one at that.

Still, through all her pain she was able to register that he was threatening her car. Her 1950 Jaguar that she had just gotten re-done after it had been brutalized by Charonite's youma the night that she became a lieutenant.

She tried to say something, but all that came out was a gargle. Not even Variscite was sure what it might've been that she said. She couldn't think clearly. What had brought all this on, again?

Suddenly, the keys were in her hands. She reached upwards, trying to give them to him, but it seemed like his hand was getting farther and farther away.

She wanted to faint. Why did no one faint when they wanted to? The dark-haired and red-faced girl somehow made it to her feet, her bones creaking like an old house.

Before she could give the key to Obsidian, though, Variscite suddenly turned to the side and doubled over. The sickening sound of her own stomach's contents hitting the cold ground was all that filled her ears for what seemed like forever.

It felt like her lungs were being punctured when Variscite was finally able to breathe again. With shaking fingers, she placed the keys to one of the few things she loved in Obsidian's hand. Then, she gratefully sank back to the ground, beside pools of her own blood and other bodily fluids.